Роберт Льюис Стивенсон
Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin
The position Jenkin claimed for the Engineers was a high one, but not too high: thus he well defined it: —
‘In respect of Domestic Sanitation the business of the Engineer and that of the medical man overlap; for while it is the duty of the engineer to learn from the doctor what conditions are necessary to secure health, the engineer may, nevertheless, claim in his turn the privilege of assisting in the warfare against disease by using his professional skill to determine what mechanical and constructive arrangements are best adapted to secure these conditions.’ 5
Flattery in the form of imitation followed in due course. A branch was established at St. Andrews, and one of the earliest of similar institutions was founded at Newport in the United States. Another sprang up at Wolverhampton. In 1881 two such societies were announced as having been set on foot in London. And the Times of April 14th, in a leading article of some length, drew attention to the special features of the plan which it was stated had followed close upon a paper read by Professor Fleeming Jenkin before the Society of Arts in the preceding month of January. The adherents included such names as those of Sir William Gull, Professor Huxley, Professor Burdon Sanderson, and Sir Joseph Fayrer. The Saturday Review, in January, had already in a characteristic article enforced the principles of the scheme, and shown how, for a small annual payment, ‘the helpless and hopeless condition of the householder at the mercy of the plumber’ might be for ever changed.
The London Association, established on the lines of the parent society, has been followed by many others year by year; amongst these are Bradford, Cheltenham, Glasgow, and Liverpool in 1882; Bedford, Brighton, and Newcastle in 1883; Bath, Cambridge, Cardiff, Dublin, and Dundee in 1884; and Swansea in 1885; and while we write the first steps are being taken, with help from Edinburgh, to establish an association at Montreal; sixteen Associations.
Almost, it may be said, a bibliography has been achieved for Fleeming Jenkin’s movement.
In 1878 was published Healthy Houses (Edin., David Douglas), being the substance of the two lectures already mentioned as having been delivered in Edinburgh with the intention of laying open the idea of the scheme then in contemplation, with a third addressed to the Medico-Chirurgical Society. This book has been long out of print, and such has been the demand for it that the American edition 6 is understood to be also out of print, and unobtainable.
In 1880 was printed (London, Spottiswoode & Co.) a pamphlet entitled What is the Best Mode of Amending the Present Laws with Reference to Existing Buildings, and also of Improving their Sanitary Condition with due Regard to Economical Considerations? – the substance of a paper read by Professor Jenkin at the Congress of the Social Science Association at Edinburgh in October of that year.
The first item of Health Lectures for the People (Edin., 1881) consists of a discourse on the ‘Care of the Body’ delivered by Professor Jenkin in the Watt Institution at Edinburgh, in which the theories of house sanitation are dwelt on.
House Inspection, reprinted from the Sanitary Record, was issued in pamphlet form in 1882. And another small tract, Houses of the Poor; their Sanitary Arrangement, in 1885.
In this connection it may be said that while the idea formulated by Jenkin has been carried out with a measure of success that could hardly have been foreseen, in one point only, it may be noted, has expectation been somewhat disappointed as regards the good that these Associations should have effected – and the fact was constantly deplored by the founder – namely, the comparative failure as a means of improving the condition of the dwellings of the poorer classes. It was ‘hoped that charity and public spirit would have used the Association to obtain reports on poor tenements, and to remedy the most glaring evils.’ 7
The good that these associations have effected is not to be estimated by the numbers of their membership. They have educated the public on certain points. The fact that they exist has become generally known, and, by consequence, persons of all classes are induced to satisfy themselves of the reasons for the existence of such institutions, and thus they learn of the evils that have called them into being.
Builders, burgh engineers, and private individuals in any way connected with the construction of dwellings in town or country have been put upon their mettle, and constrained to keep themselves abreast with the wholesome truths which the engineering staff of all these Sanitary Associations are the means of disseminating.
In this way, doubtless, some good may indirectly have been done to poorer tenements, though not exactly in the manner contemplated by the founder.
Now, if it be true that Providence helps those who help themselves, surely a debt of gratitude is due to him who has placed (as has been attempted to be shown in this brief narrative) the means of self-help and the attainment of a palpable benefit within the reach of all through the working of a simple plan, whose motto well may be, ‘Healthy Houses’; and device a strangled snake.
A. F.
